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Horse...eat horse meat. Go to an auction where they are selling them to the dog food companies and you can get them really cheap. Usually pretty lean meat, may be a little tough if it is an older animal but a good crockpot cooking will help that.

The only problem is if your neighbors see you hanging and skinning the thing...something about it really bugs them. Also you will need room in the freezer.

Good luck...

BTW...remember Tonto in the the lone Ranger. Kimosabe actually means "One day I am going to eat your horse" ... no really....

Feed requirements and feed conversion

According to "Rabbit Production" by Mcnitt et al. 2000. "As a rule of thumb, a New Zealand White Doe and litter will consume about 100 pounds of feed from breeding to eight weeks of age. Weanling rabbits will consume from 2 to 6 ounces of feed per day, depending on their size.
Feed conversion is the pounds of feed consumed divided by the pounds of body weight gained. It is commonly referred to as the feed:grain ratio. Weanling rabbits will consume about 3 pounds of feed per pound of gain. As a rule it will take 3.5 to 4.0 pounds of feed for a doe and litter per pound of gain of the litter."
Incidentally alfalfa meal, whatever that is, ranges from 40% to 54% of some examples of diet formulas this book gives. Anyway using this ratio and the figure of $11.50 per 50 pound feed bag; This works out to be $0.23/pound of feed; Multiply $0.23/pound of feed by 4.0 pounds of feed per pound of weight gain gives a cost of $0.92 per pound of rabbit grown. However, then you need to multiply by 2 because 50% of the rabbit will be lost when you process it - unless you have a dog to eat bones, fur and guts. Yet at $1.84 a pound it is still low cholesterol meat you have had control over. Meat is becoming more expensive everywhere these days. I hope these figures are helpful. Adrian.

So are the hutch rabbits tastier and more tender than wild cottontails?

Also, the "eating crow" reference mixed in with rabbits reminds me of a true story. I went rabbit hunting one time with my Dad, my half-brother and HIS cousin (but not MY cousin, which is important, as will be explained). Anyway, we shot some rabbits and then decided to break out the crow call and shoot some crows. Shooting crows is about the only thing I've ever shot just for the fun of shooting something for no reason. I've given it up, but that was then and this is now. Then, it was exciting to call in crows and blast away. We called in a bunch of crows and popped a few of them.

Then, my Brother's cousin decides that he wants to see what crow meat tastes like. He proceeds to skin a crow, which from the looks of it is not easy. As it turns out, the skin sticks to the meat. Crow meat is the ultimate dark meat. It's nearly black. It also stinks.

According to my brother, HIS cousin was undeterred and actually cooked and tried to eat the crow. He did not manage to swallow one bite, which he reported was the worst tasting meat he had ever tried.

So the moral of the story, if there is one, and I'm not sure there is, is that some people may eat dogs, cats and horses, but nobody eats crows.

This works out to be $0.23/pound of feed; Multiply $0.23/pound of feed by 4.0 pounds of feed per pound of weight gain gives a cost of $0.92 per pound of rabbit grown. However, then you need to multiply by 2 because 50% of the rabbit will be lost when you process it - unless you have a dog to eat bones, fur and guts. Yet at $1.84 a pound it is still low cholesterol meat you have had control over. Meat is becoming more expensive everywhere these days. I hope these figures are helpful. Adrian.

Thanks a million Adrian......... At 92 cents a pound that is very
comparable to store bought chicken. And way cheaper than
lean beef.

Unless your buying chicken "on the hoof", wouldn't the comparison be at $1.84/lb.

Either way, I just got back from a local market (Northern New Jersey), thawed rabbit $8.99/lb. It looked very good, fresh, nice and lean but $8.99/lb Maybe that's typical, I guess I was just thinking priced more like chicken.

Unless your buying chicken "on the hoof", wouldn't the comparison be at $1.84/lb.

Either way, I just got back from a local market (Northern New Jersey), thawed rabbit $8.99/lb. It looked very good, fresh, nice and lean but $8.99/lb Maybe that's typical, I guess I was just thinking priced more like chicken.

Note that the $1.84 per pound is boneless, and skinless. Boneless
chicken is in that same price zone. Perhaps more.

We fed our rabbits baled hay(almost pure alfalfa) and dried ear corn at all times, never had any problems. Pellets were fed too, but not unlimited quantities except to nursing does. I would be comfortable drying down plain old grass clippings for bucks.

My brother used to raise meat rabbits. He got to where he hated to kill them. After he got out of it, a guy started a truck route that came around and picked up the live rabbits and took them to the Pel-Freeze plant.

That is very interesting Dave......... but does it have any
impact on meat quality??

I know zoos use it to kill rats and mice for their critters, and it's used to flush oxygen out of bags of shredded cheese to prevent spoilage. I have heard it CAN give off-flavors to cheese, but it takes a pretty significant level to do that.